


AM 1:27

by 127loves



Category: K-pop, NCT (Band)
Genre: Angst, Friends to Enemies, Friends to Lovers, Implied Sexual Content, Luwoo, M/M, Mentions of drugs, Soft Kim Jungwoo (NCT), Some Fluff, angsty jungwoo, bisexual doyoung, crackhead yukhei, dowoo
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-18
Updated: 2019-04-17
Packaged: 2020-01-15 18:03:23
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 11
Words: 12,366
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18504235
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/127loves/pseuds/127loves
Summary: He nods and reaches across the table to hold his hands. “I would never break up with you, even if my life depended on it.” He smiles reassuringly. “I like you a lot.”He laughs and squeezes the other man's hands. “I like you a lot too.”He pauses for a moment, thinking. He looks around his apartment. Suddenly, he stands up. A minute later, he comes back with a cherry blossom petal, smiling. “This is for taking care of me last night. It isn’t much, but it’s fake, so it’ll never die.” He puts it in his hand, closing his fingers around it.He smiles, putting his hand over his heart. “I’ll keep this forever.”





	1. PROLOGUE

Yukhei throws himself onto Jungwoo’s bed after the smaller boy’s first day of college. “What’s the tea,” he asks, resting his head in his hands.

Jungwoo rolls his eyes as he unpacks his painfully heavy backpack. Groaning, he says, “There isn’t any.”

The taller of the two lets out an exaggerated sigh. “There has to be something that happened today. Was there a cute boy, a fight, anything?”

Jungwoo throws his books on the floor of the apartment they share. “No, but I think that there will be one.”

Yukhei’s eyes light up. “Really? Where?”

Jungwoo looks at him, “Right here in about ten seconds if you don’t stop questioning me about my day.”

At Jungwoo’s remark, Yukhei jumped off of his bed and ran out of Jungwoo’s room and into his own, locking the door. When Jungwoo rushed to Yukhei’s room, running after him, he zoomed face first into the door. Yukhei jumped at the loud sound of impact and laughed when he realized it was Jungwoo giving himself a minor concussion. 

After recovering from his injury, Jungwoo leaned against the door. While rubbing his head, he said loudly, “I’ll tell you about my day if you let me inside.”

Yukhei hummed, taking the situation into consideration. “Sure,” he finally says. He unlocks the door and opens it, causing Jungwoo to fall onto the floor at Yukhei’s feet.

“I think that his name is Doyoung.”


	2. CHAPTER ONE

After Jungwoo said Doyoung’s name, Yukhei’s nose crinkled. “Doyoung? That’s a wacky name .  Who in their right mind would name a child Doyoung? Doo-young.. Doh-yong.. Sue-young.. Ha ha, Sue. Anyways, his name’s weird. That’s my point.”

Jungwoo narrowed his eyes, “And you’re saying that ‘Yukhei’ isn’t?”

Yukhei shrugged and nodded. “Good point. That’s why I tell people to call me Lucas.”

“No, you just tell them that because you want to sound white,” Jungwoo said as he stood. He walked over to Yukhei’s bookcase and he saw a bottle of lotion next to his bed that was almost gone. Jungwoo picked it up and faced  _ Lucas _ , a judgemental look on his face.

Yukhei threw his hands up. “You have one next to your bed too so don’t even talk to me!”

“Yeah, but it’s for actually moisturizing my hands,” Jungwoo sighs while putting it down. “Do you have any hand sanitizer or something? My hands feel sticky now,” Jungwoo laughs a little at his joke.

Yukhei scrunched up his face to imitate Jungwoo after handing him some sanitizer. “Anyways, tell me about this Doyoung dude.”

After an expression that looked like happiness spread across his face, Jungwoo’s smile turned into a frown. “He’s straight - or at least I think he is. He has a girlfriend.”

Yukhei clicked his tongue. “Sorry, bro. But you know, he could be closeted or at least bi! Almost no one is straight anymore, except for  _ moi _ .” He points at himself, clearly proud about his heterosexuality.

Jungwoo shook his head. “Not him. He can’t be gay - in your terms, my ‘spidey senses’ didn’t spidey. And it didn’t look like they were just friends.”

Instead of letting Yukhei respond, Jungwoo walked into the kitchen. He didn’t really know what he was doing until he started shoving spoonfuls of nutella down his throat. Yukhei followed him and snatched the jar and the spoon that he was using away from him. “No! No stress eating for you.”

Jungwoo sighed again and flopped onto the couch. He took out his phone and went onto Instagram.

Suddenly, Jungwoo fell off of the couch. Not because he was scared - because he was surprised. While he was scrolling through his explore page, a familiar face had appeared on a post. It was Doyoung, smiling while sipping some starbucks coffee through a straw.

Yukhei rushed over to his roommate and when he started helping the smaller boy up, he saw his phone and dropped him again. “Seriously? You made me shart myself because of a picture of some guy?” A smell of shit consumed the two friends while they stood in awkward silence.

A few seconds later, Jungwoo yells, “Did you seriously shit yourself? You BITCH!” Jungwoo started coughing as a reaction to the horrid smell.

Yukhei’s eyes widened and he looked like he was about to cry. That was, until his hand came out from behind his back, a can with the words ‘SHIT PERFUME’ scribbled on it.

Jungwoo sighed, shook his head, and said, “Anyways,  _ some guy _ is Doyoung. That’s what he looks like.”

Lucas nodded his head, his mouth shaping into a small ‘o’. When Jungwoo just stared at the picture, he hit Jungwoo across the head. “What’re you doing, deadshit? Follow him and his rabbit-looking ass!”

Jungwoo rubbed his head, “Okay, okay… You didn’t need to be so rude about it.” After following him, he spent the next few hours going through Doyoung’s posts and letting out little squeals of happiness when he sees his new favorite photo of his dream boyfriend. He starts fantasizing about dating the taller man until he literally shakes himself out of it. Yukhei happens to look over at Jungwoo as soon as he has his little self-induced seizure, but he just ignores it as if he’s used to it. The next few days go agonizingly slow, but Jungwoo looks forward to every moment he sees Doyoung.

It isn’t that he’s stalking Doyoung or being creepy; the boy is just excited. The last time he liked someone was back in junior year of highschool. He had a crush on Qian Kun from the first moment he saw him. And for some reason, he still remembers it. It was on the first day of school when Jungwoo walked into his AP English class. One would assume that Kun was a student, but to everyone’s surprise, he was actually a student teacher. When Jungwoo told Yukhei about his crush on their student teacher, he called it “scandalous.” And he was right - it was. Jungwoo found himself in a secret relationship. But it wasn’t one of those relationships where it was “inappropriate” or “perverted” - Kun was only two years older than him. They were both hopeless romantics, so their relationship was full of skinship and sentimental dates. But sadly, their relationship had to end when Kun was forced to move to a different school so he could officially start his teaching job. The two parted ways without any hard feelings; they cried together a few hours before Kun left to go to a school district five hours away. They still text sometimes and send each other letters.

So this crush was a huge deal to Jungwoo because when his heart is set on someone, he means business. But he’s never had a crush on a straight (but possibly bisexual) man before.


	3. CHAPTER TWO

It took around a week for Doyoung to follow Jungwoo back on Instagram. Well actually, that was just Jungwoo’s dream. When he woke up, he immediately checked Instagram to see if his dream boy had followed him back. He wasn’t very surprised when he saw that Doyoung didn’t follow Jungwoo, but he was still a little sad.

The time was 5am when he woke up. But the thing is, his brain cells were still sleeping. He had no idea what he was doing, but somehow Jungwoo found himself laying in bed spamming about Doyoung on his side account. He then proceeded to fall asleep, resulting in his phone plummeting towards his face. Despite the heavy object falling onto his face, he slept for six more hours.

When Jungwoo woke up at 11, his phone was on his cheek. After peeling it off of his face and turning it on, he found himself being very surprised when he saw new posts on his spam account. He had thought that it was just a dream, but when he actually read the captions, he realized what he had done. And to make it even worse, he apparently even  _ tagged _ him in some of the posts. Halfway through Jungwoo’s devastated scream, Yukhei barged into his room. The look on his face was a mixture of excitement and panic. Before Jungwoo could even ask what happened, Yukhei showed Jungwoo his screen. It was opened to a text from Doyoung on Instagram, asking about Jungwoo.

Within a matter of seconds, Jungwoo and Yukhei found themselves screaming together. After composing themselves, they both lay on Jungwoo’s bed like teenage girls.

 

doyoyoung: hey, your friend tagged me in some posts?

                   I think that they were about me.

 

yukhey: oh yeah sorry about that, he gets

a little wildt sometimes ://

 

doyoyoung: nono it’s fine,, i was just going to ask for

                  his name?

 

yukhey: well his name is jungwoo but i call him

dumbass so you can call him either

 

doyoyoung: aww jungwoo’s a cute name

doyoyoung: i mean what

  
  


yukhey: text him if you really think that sis

 

doyoyoung: mayhaps i will

 

During this whole conversation, Jungwoo was looking over Yukhei’s shoulder and telling him what to say. Jungwoo slightly jumped when his phone buzzed on the small table next to his bed. He quickly fumbled for the device and his face contorted weirdly into what looked like a mixture between smiling and silently screaming when he saw that he got a text from Doyoung.

 

doyoyoung: hi jungwoo! is it weird that i know your name?

                 i’m sorry if it is,, i only know it because i texted

                 your friend before i texted you and he told me your

                 name and i’m saying too much so i’ll just wait for

                 you to respond before i ramble on again haha

 

Jungwoo squeezed the phone to his chest, squealing in joy. “Yuhei he is so so so so so so so cute you don’t even know how happy I am right now oh my god I’m going to implode-” he speaks a lot quicker than he usually does.

Yukhei laughed and shook his head. “Go get some dick.”

Jungwoo flared his nostrils and looked at Yukhei. He yelled like a child, “I don’t want his peepee! I just wanna hug and cuddle with him and-”

Yukhei put his finger over Jungwoo’s mouth to silence him. “Shut up, both you and I know that you want the coochie.”

Jungwoo licked Yukhei’s finger, which caused the man-child to whip his hand back from Jungwoo’s mouth.

 

junguwu: hi doyoung! sjfsjk don’t worry it isn’t

weird, i promise. how are you today?

 

doyoyoung: i’m great! i’m actually a lot better than i was

                  right after i woke up because i read your posts.

                  do you actually mean what you said in all of them?

 

junguwu: oh god okay dsjn first of all i’m glad

that i made your day better but i’d like

also like to apologize about what i said

because i know that you have a girlfriend

and you’re obviously not gay and everything

that i said was probably really invading-

doyoyoung: i’m bi

Yukhei laughed like a monkey right into Jungwoo’s ear, yelling “I TOLD YOU SO!” Jungwoo shook his head and pushed Yukhei off of his bed before responding.

junguwu: wow i did not see that coming

doyoyoung: i also broke up with my girlfriend so uhh

doyoyoung: i’m single now haha

junguwu: wait deadass?

doyoyoung: deadass

junguwu: oh i’m sorry :( are you okay?   
  


doyoyoung: i think so. she liked me a lot more than i

                  liked her fsjdk

junguwu: okay, if you say so sis

doyoyoung: so uh ion want you to think that i just

                 throw people away easily but do you

                 maybe possibly want to get some coffee?

doyoyoung: with me i mean

junguwu: are you sure? i don’t want to force

you into doing anything you don’t

wanna do-

doyoyoung: i promise that this is what i want

doyoyoung: besides, it isn’t like we’re dating yet.

                  i just want to get to know you better

                  for the time being

Jungwoo’s heart started racing when he read the word  _ yet. _ He started thinking about everything they’d do together and how they’d be perfect, but then he reminded himself - he doesn’t truly know Doyoung yet.

junguwu: okay uhh wanna meet at the roasted

bean tomorrow after class? i think

 

doyoyoung: yea, don’t you take writing? i’ll drive

                  us there after class if you want

junguwu: okay yea that sounds perfect! i can’t

wait uwu

Jungwoo squeals again from joy and he thrusts his phone into Yukhei’s face yelling, “YUKHEI LOOK LOOK LOOK I GOT A DATE WITH DOYOUNG CAN YOU FUCKING BELIEVE IT OH SWEET JESUS I’M BOUTTA SHART-”

Yukhei’s face lights up unexpectedly and he yells back, “MY BEST FRIEND IS A GAY LEGEND GO GET HIM QUEEN!”

Jungwoo starts ugly crying because he finally got a date, and with Doyoung of all people! He decided to text Kun the good news and the older man responded with congratulations (in all caps, of course).

Doyoung and Jungwoo spent the rest of the day and night texting each other. They talked about the small things; like what their favorite milk or type of bread was. They learned a lot about the other and Jungwoo started seeing Doyoung as an actual person, not just as someone he lusted over - and Doyoung started seeing Jungwoo as someone he would happily date.


	4. CHAPTER THREE

Jungwoo’s heart was racing the next day when he woke up. He went through his closet frantically, trying to find something presentable that he could wear. He liked his branding as a soft boy, so he decided to wear light ripped jeans and an oversized white sweater. After tucking the front of it into his jeans and clumsily putting converse on, he stumbled out of the door with a piece of toast in his mouth. As soon as the door shut behind him, he noticed that he forgot to say goodbye to Yukhei so he did a little dance that he does whenever he’s frustrated. He jumped up and down for a few seconds, hitting himself on his head. After his small breakdown, he composed himself and continued walking as if nothing happened.

He recklessly drove to the college and when he got into the large classroom, he spotted Doyoung sitting alone at a table with his computer out. He was wearing a pair of black ripped jeans with a chain latched to them and a flimsy shirt with an abstract pattern on it. Jungwoo was astounded. He never thought that Doyoung could look so - hot? He didn’t know if that was the right word or not, but he went over to the taller man. When he sat down, Doyoung looked at him. The moment he saw his new friend, his face brightened up. He smiled and said, “Hey! Jungwoo, right?”

Jungwoo nods, his cheeks turning a light shade of pink. “Y-yeah, and you’re Doyoung?”

Of course he knew who Doyoung was, but he panicked. And when Jungwoo panics, all of his brain cells shut down at the same time.

Doyoung nods as well. He turns to his computer and quickly shuts it, his cheeks now red as well. Jungwoo had assumed that he was reading over their last assignment, which was about someone you wanted to get closer to. But the twist was that you couldn’t mention their name in it.

Jungwoo licked his lips and pulled out his laptop to read over his own paper. But as soon as he opened it, the music that he had been playing last night resumed. Before he knew it, Deepthroat by CupcakKe started playing at full volume. His face turned bright red and he slammed his computer shut. Beside him, Doyoung was wheezing. He put his hand on Jungwoo’s shoulder while he was shaking from laughter. Jungwoo looked around the room. Thankfully not many people were there yet, but it was still embarrassing. The few people that  _ were _ there stared at him, confused. Jungwoo turned to look at Doyoung and quietly said, “Wanna go now?”

Doyoung stopped laughing and looked at Jungwoo, deadly serious. The stare in his eyes was so powerful that if looks could kill, Jungwoo would be dead. He said in a low tone, “No.”

And then within the span of a second, his face turned bright again and he laughed. “I’m just kidding. Yeah, we can go if you want.”

Jungwoo nods. Doyoung really does have a duality, and it could be dangerous for Jungwoo if Doyoung wanted to stay just friends.

Jungwoo hastily packs his computer back into his bag and stands up. Doyoung does the same and follows the shorter man out of the large room. Doyoung took Jungwoo to his car and threw their bags into the backseat. He turned on Deepthroat and while he was pulling out of the space, he grinned af Jungwoo. “Thought that you’d want to finish listening to it,” he said.

Jungwoo glared at him and turned to look out of the window. While he was watching the trees go by, Doyoung unexpectedly puts his hand on Jungwoo’s thigh. It isn’t aggressive or intruding; it was soft and reassuring. Even though Jungwoo hadn’t spent much time with Doyoung physically, he feels like he’s known him all his life.

When the couple arrived at the small cafe, Doyoung decided to be a ‘classy’ man and open the door for Jungwoo. He assumed that the small gesture would make the younger man blush - and that’s exactly what it did. They walked into the building, Jungwoo looking like a clown because of the color of his face. After taking a seat, Doyoung stared at Jungwoo’s red face. Jungwoo covered his face with the menu, occasionally peeking over it to look at his date.

“Stop looking at me, Doyoung!”

“Why? You’re so cute that I can’t look away.” He leans on his arm. When the waitress comes to their table, Doyoung quickly picks up a menu and attempts to choose what he wants in 0.003 seconds. After Jungwoo orders, the waitress turns her gaze to look at Doyoung. Seeing his panicked expression, Jungwoo sighs and orders for him, saying that he’ll have the same thing as him.

Doyoung shakily hands her his menu. As soon as she walks away, he turns his attention to Jungwoo. As soon as he looks at his date, he’s met with a smirk. “D-don’t look at me like that!”

Jungwoo laughs while shaking his head. “You’re a fool.”

Doyoung leans forward in his seat, examining Jungwoo. “Okay, and?”

“And…” Jungwoo bites his lip a little. “Maybe I’m a fool for you?”

Doyoung smiles, staying silent. This makes Jungwoo panic and practically lose his sanity, so he quickly says, “I mean, only if you’re okay with that. Because you know, I don’t want to make you uncomfortable and force myself on you, which I’m totally not doing because I just said that I didn’t want to do that-”

He’s interrupted by the waitress returning with their orders. Jungwoo visibly relaxes when the lady comes up to the table. After setting the food on their table, she winks at Doyoung and leaves their table. Jungwoo catches her gesture and sulks into his chair. Doyoung sees her wink, but he ignores it and thanks her for delivering their food. After arranging their plates, Doyoung notices how Jungwoo responded to it. “Hey,” he says gently.

Jungwoo looks up at him. “Jungwoo, you’re the only person I want. I don’t care about anyone else. You’re not forcing yourself onto me, and I think it’s kinda cute when you panic and talk all fast like that. But I promise that you’re the only person I want to date. I like you, not some random waitress with a big butt.”

Jungwoo mumbles, “You looked at her butt?”

“If you want me to, I’ll only look at your butt from now on. I like your butt more than her’s anyways; your’s is  _ perkier _ .” Doyoung smirks again as he takes a bite out of his sandwich.

Jungwoo’s face turns red once again and he slowly starts eating his sandwich. After a few moments of silence, Doyoung exclaims in surprise, “Woo, I think there’s something in my sandwich.”

Jungwoo slowly raises his eyes to look at the fool sitting in front of him. “Well? Take it out…”

Doyoung takes out a note from his sandwich. He unfolds it and sighs, throwing it into the garbage can near their table. Jungwoo looks at him in confusion. “What was it?”

Doyoung shakes his head. “Nothing.”

Jungwoo sets his sandwich down. “Doyoung, what-”

“It was her phone number.”

Jungwoo has never snapped before. Even when his little sister spilled paint on his art project that he had worked on for a week, he wasn’t angry. When his mother grounded him for something that he didn’t even do, he accepted it and moved on. But right now, at this moment, he was infuriated. He slammed money on the table and took Doyoung’s hand, pulling him towards the door of the cafe. He made sure that the woman who hit on Doyoung was at the counter (she was) before pulling Doyoung close to him, his hand on Doyoung’s waist. He pressed his lips to Doyoung’s, earning a gasp from the rest of the cafe as they made out in front of them. Jungwoo bit Doyoung’s lip, earning a small moan from his date. He pulled away and glanced at the waitress before pulling him out of the cafe.

They quickly walked to the car and Doyoung got in the driver’s seat. After closing the doors, Doyoung turns his body towards Jungwoo. “What was that? I mean, it isn’t that I didn’t like it, but I’m just confused.”

Jungwoo takes a deep breath, trying to calm down. “That waitress… She hit on you.”

“Jungwoo, I told you that I’m yours - and nobody else’s.”

Jungwoo shakes his head. “I-I know, but something about it just made me so angry. I hated it how she thought that she was good enough for you.” A few moments after saying that, Jungwoo looks down at his hands. “That was really mean…”

Doyoung laughs and moves Jungwoo’s face to look at his. “Did you just compliment me by insulting someone else?”

Jungwoo nods, keeping eye contact with Doyoung.

“That is  _ so _ hot.” Doyoung leaned in to kiss Jungwoo. However, unlike last time, Jungwoo was the one that was caught off-guard. Doyoung grinned against his lips and quietly said, “You really thought that I would let you get away with randomly kissing me in public? Tsk tsk, you should be punished.”

Jungwoo’s face turned red and he stuttered, trying to work out something to say. Instead of letting him stutter for any longer, Doyoung captured his lips again. He leaned Jungwoo’s seat back and climbed on top of him. After a few moments, Doyoung was back in his seat. Jungwoo looked at him, astonished. “Doyoung, how could you just-”

Doyoung buckled his seat belt and turned the car on. “We’ve only been dating for what, two hours? I don’t want to rush it.” He looks at Jungwoo sideways, “We’ll finish that another day. But now, I’m taking you to a different cafe and hopefully I won’t be hit on there. But if you make a scene like that again, I won’t be complaining.”

Jungwoo laughs a little, patting Doyoung’s thigh. “So are you my boyfriend?”

“Why not? I like you, you like me.. So yes, Jungwoo, I’m your boyfriend.” Doyoung smiles and moves Jungwoo’s hand so they’re entwined.


	5. CHAPTER FOUR

After a proper date, Doyoung drops Jungwoo off at his apartment. He waves goodbye to Doyoung, his excitement through the roof. As soon as Doyoung drives off, Jungwoo runs to his front door, throwing his shoes off once he got inside. “YUKHEI,” he yelled.

Yukhei came running to where Jungwoo was, a huge goofy smile on his face. “Did you get the coochie?”

Jungwoo frantically nods. “I GOT THE COOCHIE.”

Yukhei runs into Jungwoo’s arms, picking him up and swinging him around. “MY BEST FRIEND IS FINALLY GETTING SOME DICK,” he yells.

Jungwoo laughs and after he’s set down, he stares at Yukhei. “Get some food and I’ll tell you the tea.”

Yukhei clumsily runs into the kitchen, wanting to know all about Jungwoo’s day.

He throws cookies on a plate sets it down on a coffee table in front of their couch. After about an hour of Jungwoo summarizing his wild day, all of the cookies were gone and Yukhei was dumbfounded. The first thing he said was, “You snapped.”

Jungwoo nodded. “At the cafe? Yea-”

“No, I mean you snapped the cookie. But yea, you snapped there too.” He gestured to the cookie in Jungwoo’s hands, crumbs covering his lap. “Why would you do that to Chungus? He had his who- waiT jUngwOO NO nOOOOoOOOOoo-” He starts yelling as Jungwoo aggressively shoves the dead cookie in his mouth. “You monster,” Yukhei says, the color draining from his face. A second later, he’s back in the kitchen, getting more cookies. “Bet you’re going to suck Doyoung’s dick like that.”

Jungwoo stared at Yukhei in awe. “First of all, no, literally what the fuck, and second of all, he’s gonna be the one sucking my dick.”

Yukhei shakes his head. “No sir, you’re gonna be the one sucking dick. You’re a _total_ sub. You can’t even deny it.”

Jungwoo laughs, “I am so not! Okay, how am I a sub? Tell me that much.”

“Well, to start off, you hug your pillow at night while you sleep. You whine a lot, you make _me_ handle all of the shit that you’re too afraid of doing, you always back down during an argument, and you always tell me to tell you what to do. Now that, my friend, is sub behavior.” He brings over another plate of cookies. “Sorry to break it to you, but I don’t think that you have it in you to be a dom. You’re just too soft.”

Jungwoo pouts. Yukhei looks at him and points at his face. “That’s exactly what I’m talking about! See? You’re _such_ a bottom.”

He mumbles as he shoves a cookie into his face, making a point to break it in half before eating it. Almost immediately after swallowing the cookie, Jungwoo’s phone buzzes. He picks it up right away to see what the notification was, earning a small “you’re totally a sub” from his friend. It was a text from Doyoung asking if he could call him. Jungwoo looked up at Yukhei and whispered, “he wants to call me.”

Yukhei make an uncomfortable snorting sound. “He _so_ wants to have phone sex with you, like, right now.”

Jungwoo scrunches his nose. “I’m sure that’s not the case. He told me that he wanted to wait,” he says the last part quietly. “Should I call him?”

“Uh, is that even a question? Of course, you dumbass. He’s your boyfriend, so why wouldn’t you call him? Do it here, though. I want to hear what he wants to say.” Yukhei turns off the tv.

Jungwoo wrings his hands. “But what if it’s about something personal?”

“Then,” Yukhei leans back, getting comfortable, “you can go into another room or something. Just call him, for Christ’s sake.”

“Okay, okay…” Jungwoo goes to Doyoung’s contact and presses the ‘call’ button. After a few rings, Doyoung picks up. The first thing that Jungwoo heard was loud music coming through the speakers. “Woo,” Doyoung yells into the mic, “Is that you? I didn’t look at the name before I picked up. Heheh, I’m lying. I can’t even _read_ right now!”

Jungwoo’s eyes widened. “What’s happening?”

“Well, you see babe, my friend took me clubbingandImightbealittledrunk,” all of Doyoung’s words were slurred, but Jungwoo could still understand him. Especially the part where he called him babe.

Yukhei was staring at Jungwoo the whole time while making exaggerated hand gestures. Right now he was making a heart with his arms.

“Uh, okay. Do you want me to pick you up?”

“Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm yep.” And then he hangs up.

Jungwoo bites his lip, turning off his phone and looking at Yukhei. “So, uh-”  
“You’re getting laid.”

“Excuse me, what-”

“Jungwoo, my buddy. I said you’re getting laid. You know, you’re gonna ‘bake the potato’, ‘cream the twinkie’, ‘dance the goat’s gig’,” he pauses, “do you even know what I’m talking about?”

Jungwoo shakes his head. “I know what getting laid means but.. ‘bake the potato’? Really?”

“Stop being mean to me and go pick up your boy-toy from the club.” He stands up, Jungwoo following him to the door. “And,” he pats his back, “don’t forget to stay safe!”

Jungwoo glares at his friend before leaving the apartment building. He climbs into his car and quickly drives off, but it’s not too long before he realizes that he doesn’t even know where he’s going. He tries calling Doyoung again, but he doesn’t pick up. With a sigh, he realizes that he’s going to have to find his boyfriend the hard way.

After about an hour of searching all of the nightclubs within a five-mile radius, Jungwoo finally finds the one where Doyoung was. He finds him in a circle of girls, looking visibly uncomfortable as they all grind on him. Jungwoo starts walking towards him. The moment that Doyoung sees the dark-blue haired man, he tells all of the girls to fuck off, which earns him disgusted looks from them. He runs over to Jungwoo and greets him with a sloppy kiss. He rasps in his ear, “Don’t worry about them, babe. They don’t matter to me. You, on the other hand…” He trails off as he begins to kiss down Jungwoo’s neck.

Jungwoo lightly pushes Doyoung away and yells over the music, “You told me to pick you up. If we’re going to do anything.. Not here.”

Doyoung smiles and nods, completely and utterly drunk. Jungwoo grabs his hand and pulls him out of the busy and loud nightclub. Once they get to his car, he buckled Doyoung in. He figured that Doyoung’s brain cells were MIA, so he didn’t even let him try for the sake of Jungwoo’s sanity. Jungwoo asked him where his house was and he mumbled out the address. Upon hearing what Doyoung said, regular people would have fucking idea what Doyoung was trying to say. But luckily for Jungwoo, he was a master in the field of deciphering what drunk people were saying, thanks to Yukhei. It took about 15 minutes to get to Doyoung’s apartment. After many attempts at carrying Doyoung (all ending in him dropping the tall man), he had no idea how he did it, but Jungwoo managed to quite literally drag Doyoung up the steps and into the building. He was about to leave when Doyoung made a weird sound that translated to “Stay with me” accompanied by him grabbing Jungwoo’s hand.

Jungwoo was quite startled, but he decided that he was going to stay. He couldn’t leave his drunk, fucked-up boyfriend alone now, could he? Based on what Jungwoo had seen of Doyoung in his drunk state of mind, he could set the building on fire if he really wanted to. And that would be a lot of paperwork.

He texted Yukhei, telling him that he won’t be coming home tonight. All he got was a “;),” which meant that he was probably going to jerk off in Jungwoo’s bed ‘just to see what it’s like’. He walked over to the opposite side of the bed from where Doyoung was and layed down, turning over to look at him. “Are you sure you want me to stay tonight? I’m pretty sure I talk in my sleep and-”

“I’m sure, babe. Just shut up and let me cuddle you.” Doyoung snaked his arm around Jungwoo’s shoulders and pulled him close. Jungwoo could smell the alcohol on his breath.

A few minutes passed by and Jungwoo couldn’t tell if Doyoung was still awake or not, so he looked up to see Doyoung looking down at him. He smiled when he saw how sleepy he looked. He held his hand, rubbing his finger in a circle. “Love, just go to sleep if you’re that tired.”

Doyoung shakes his head. “I don’t want to leave you.”

“I’m not going anywhere, you know that.”

“I want to stay with you. I don’t want to dream because you probably won’t be in it.” He leans down, his lips meeting Jungwoo’s.

“Doyoung…” He cupped Doyoung’s cheek. “I’ll still be here when you wake up, I promise. I’ll never leave you.”

Doyoung laughs. “I’ve heard that one before.”

Jungwoo suddenly sits up. “Doyoung, I mean it. I’ll never leave you, even if you want me to. I’ll stay with you for as long as you need me to. Why would I lie to you about that?”

He shakes his head, “I don’t know. It’s just that… everyone else has left me. I don’t see why you’d want to stay with someone as fucked up as me.”

“Well then everyone that has left you is missing out on a fun, spectacular guy. You’re more than I could ever wish for. These past hours that I’ve spent with you have been the most amusing moments I’ve had in a while. I promise that you are the best person anyone could ever ask for.” Jungwoo softly kisses Doyoung, leaning his forehead against his. “You’re perfect the way you are.”

“But I don’t know if I could ever love you.”

After saying that, Doyoung passes out into a deep sleep. Jungwoo is left speechless, not knowing how to react. What did Doyoung mean? Does this mean that what they have isn’t real to him? Was it one-sided? He’s probably just drunk… right?

Without knowing it, tears start slipping down Jungwoo’s face. He slowly moves to the other side of the bed so Doyoung's arm wasn't draped over his waist. Eventually, he falls asleep, feeling more alone than ever.


	6. CHAPTER FIVE

Jungwoo wakes up to the smell of bacon wafting into the room. He tries opening his eyes but immediately closes them because of the bright sun coming through the windows. He stands up out of bed, still blind, and feels around to leave the room. He finally opens his eyes and sees Doyoung in the kitchen. As soon as he sees him, memories come back from last night. It all seemed like a dream, but it wasn’t. He walked over to Doyoung and wrapped his arms around his waist, burying his face in his back. What does he do now? They haven’t even been dating for 24 hours and Doyoung already told him that he couldn’t love Jungwoo. Maybe it was something personal? Jungwoo decided to ask Doyoung.

“Babe-” Doyoung turns around, a smile on his face. “Good morning Woo! How did you sleep last night? I’m sorry if I suffocated you or something.”

Jungwoo decides against asking him. Maybe later. “Oh, I slept well- but you were drunk out of your mind. Do you have a hangover? How does your head feel?”

Doyoung scratches the back of his head. “Actually, I don’t know why, but I don’t get hangovers. It’s pretty weird, but I just never get them.” He gestures to the oven and the freshly made bacon and eggs. “Do you want any?”

Jungwoo nods and says, “But make sure to save some for yourself.” He pecks Doyoung and goes to sit down at the table, admiring his boyfriend. He zones out for a second and before he knows it, Doyoung’s sitting across from him. He turns to face him and quietly asks, “Doyoung, what did you mean by what you said last night?”

Doyoung looks up and furrows his eyebrows. “What did I say last night?”

“Um…” Jungwoo starts picking at his fingernails. “You said that you didn’t know if you could ever love me.” He bites his lip in fear of Doyoung getting mad at him.

“Oh.” Doyoung takes a deep breath. He stands up and puts his dishes in the sink. “Jungwoo, it isn’t anything about you. It’s just that I-” he pauses. “Before I tell you, can you promise to not hate me?”

Jungwoo eagerly nods, desperately wanting to know what was wrong. “I just want to help you. I could never hate you.”

Doyoung walks over to the table again, sitting down. What could be so bad that he felt like he couldn’t tell Jungwoo?

“I’m afraid of falling in love.”

Oh.

_Oh._

Jungwoo stares at Doyoung. “Doyoung-” He paused. He wanted to say the right thing, not make Doyoung feel even more uncomfortable. “I’m here for you. I’ll wait as long as you need. Even though I don’t understand what you’re afraid of, I’ll wait. Because I think that you’re worth the wait, even if it takes years.”

A small smile appears on Doyoung’s face. “Thank you, Jungwoo. Seriously. The only other person I told was my ex, and she broke up with me on the spot. I was actually kinda afraid that you’d do the same,” he laughs a little, “but now I can see that you’re ten times the person she ever was. Seriously, thank you.”

Jungwoo nods and reaches across the table to hold Doyoung’s hands. “I would never break up with you, even if my life depended on it.” He smiles reassuringly. “I like you a lot.”

Doyoung laughs and squeezes Jungwoo’s hands. “I like you a lot too.”

He pauses for a moment, thinking. He looks around his apartment. Suddenly, he stands up. A minute later, he comes back with a cherry blossom petal, smiling. “This is for taking care of me last night. It isn’t much, but it’s fake, so it’ll never die.” He puts it in Jungwoo’s hand, closing his fingers around it.

Jungwoo smiles, putting his hand over his heart. “I’ll keep this forever.”

**-**

After putting the newly cleaned dishes away, Jungwoo gets a text from his dear friend _Lucas_. He tries holding his phone with his wet hands, but his phone tumbles onto the floor. Doyoung picks it up and accidentally reads Yukhei’s text that said, “So did you get any dick?”

He handed it to Jungwoo, laughing. Jungwoo read it and looked up to Doyoung, his face red. Doyoung nods. “Just tell him yes.”

Jungwoo looks at him in confusion. “Why? We haven’t actually gone that far yet.”

Doyoung grins. “I want to see how he’ll react. Also, I don’t think I’ve actually met him? He told me to call him Lucas but I get the feeling that that isn’t his real name.”

Jungwoo shakes his head, typing in his response. “That’s because Lucas _isn’t_ his real name. He just wants people to call him that because he aspires to be a common white boy. A few years ago, he even bleached his hair to blonde and wore a nike hat every day.”

Doyoung laughs a little and nods, leaning against the counter. “Understandable. Has he said anything about me? Have _you_ said anything about me?”

Jungwoo’s face turns red again. “Well, when I first told him about you, he said that your name was weird. And that you looked like a rabbit. And he was the one that told me that you probably weren’t straight, despite not even knowing you. And he’s also asked me about what your dick tastes like, but,” he smiles awkwardly, “yeah.”

“Wait,” Doyoung grins and crosses his legs, “you talked about me before I even knew you? You _have_ to tell me what you said about me.”

Jungwoo bites his lip and laughs a little. “What if I don’t tell you?”

Doyoung shrugs. “You’ll have to be punished or something, so it’s better that you just tell me.”

“Well, I told him about how you had a girlfriend and how you’re most definitely straight, how cute you are, how much I want to suck your dick, how nice your hair is, how-”

Doyoung cut Jungwoo off by saying, “You want to suck my dick?”

Jungwoo shrugs. “Who doesn’t?”

Doyoung starts laughing. “A lot of people, but that’s beside the point. Do you really want to? Did you actually say that?”

“I mean, yea-”

“Then get on your knees.”

“Excuse me?” Jungwoo awkwardly smiles.

“You heard me, get on your knees-”

“If anyone’s dick is going to be sucked, it should be mine,” Jungwoo argues. “I mean, I _did_ do all of the dishes and put them away.”

“Well, I made breakfast.”

“ _Well_ , you didn’t have to drag a full grown man into a third floor apartment all by yourself!” Jungwoo crosses his arms, pouting. He didn’t really _need_ to get his dick sucked, but he felt kinda bratty at that exact moment and he wanted to live to his full potential.

“Fair enough.” Doyoung nods.

Jungwoo’s stomach drops, but he decides to go along with it. “Well? What are you waiting for?”

Doyoung shrugs. “I don’t really want to kneel on hard tile. I’d rather kneel on a carpet or something.”

“Well, you have a living room that’s carpeted.” Jungwoo feels himself getting excited at the thought of Doyoung sucking him off.

Doyoung nods and casually says, “Okay, go sit on the couch or something.”

Jungwoo nods, walking over to the couch. He sits down and leans back, feeling an emotion that he hasn’t felt in a long time - excitement. The moment he saw Doyoung kneel in front of him, he knew that he was about to have the best time of his life.

“Now, you’re gonna have to forgive me if I’m a little awkward. I was straight until I met you.” Doyoung smirks and curls his fingers over the top of Jungwoo’s sweatpants.


	7. CHAPTER SIX

Days after getting the best succ of his life, Jungwoo wakes up to his phone buzzing. He slowly reaches over and grabs it, not caring to look at the screen to see who was calling him. He groggily said into the phone, “Hello?”

The person on the other side asked, “Are you Kim Jungwoo?”

Jungwoo pulled the phone away from his ear and looked at the number that was calling him. All it said was “unknown.”

He nodded and said, “Yea, that’s me. But why-” He’s cut off as the call is ended.

Moments later, his phone buzzes with a new message from the unknown number. As soon as he reads it, his eyes widen. Shivers go down his back and he stands up to tell Yukhei about what’s happening. As if Yukhei’s mind was connected to Jungwoo’s, he walks into his room with his phone in his hand. “Did you-”

“Get the message too? Yeah. Who do you think it could be?” Jungwoo sits back on his bed. “You don’t think-”

“He was a pretty creepy dude. I mean, after you broke up with him, he stalked you, right?” Yukhei sat next to Jungwoo, the usual glint in his eyes gone.

Jungwoo looked back down at the phone in his hand. “Jaemin,” Jungwoo mumbles, “What’re you going to do this time?”

-

_ Jungwoo laughed as Yukhei hung a bra on their dorm’s ceiling fan. It wasn’t Yukhei’s, of course - he (sadly) had no tiddies - it was from the girl that he hooked up with the night before. He turned the fan’s setting up so it was spinning as fast as possible. Yukhei sat down on their couch, resting his arm around Jungwoo’s shoulders. He took a long drag of the blunt in his other hand and gave it to Jungwoo. “This tradition should never die.” _

_ “Do you mean the getting high part or the bra flinging around the room part?” Jungwoo laughed again after hitting the blunt. _

_ Yukhei gestured around the room. “All of it. Jungwoo, this is perfect. Everything is the way it should be.” He turned his head to look at Jungwoo. They both froze when they realized that their faces were inches apart. Jungwoo felt his heartbeat increase. This wasn’t the first time that something like this had happened, but he had a feeling that this would change into something more than just staring. _

_ He had no idea why he did it, but he leaned in, closing his eyes. He felt Yukhei’s lips on his own. He had never felt this sensation before - he felt shivers go across his whole body. Yukhei moved closer to Jungwoo, wrapping his arms around Jungwoo’s neck. The kiss became deeper and more passionate. He pulled away from his best friend to take a breath when he saw a flash out of the corner of his eye. He turned his head just as Yukhei went in to kiss him again, resulting in Yukhei hitting his nose on Jungwoo’s cheekbone. He opened his eyes and began to ask Jungwoo what happened, but Jungwoo pulled Yukhei onto the floor in front of their couch - and away from the window. _

_ “I-I think that someone’s out there.” Jungwoo stared into Yukhei’s eyes. “I saw a flash and saw something move.” _

_ Yukhei cupped Jungwoo’s cheek. “Are you sure that you’re not just hella stoned? One of the symptoms of being high is being paranoid. I’m sure it’s nothing.” Yukhei leaned over and brushed his lips against Jungwoo’s neck. “And even if there  _ was _ someone, I can make you forget about it…” _

_ Jungwoo tilted his head to the left as Yukhei began leaving hickeys on his neck. He let out a breathy moan and leaned his head back, closing his eyes. As he opened them, he saw someone standing behind the couch. He leaned over so his lips were against his ear and whispered, “There’s someone behind me.” _

_ Yukhei slightly pushed Jungwoo to the right, revealing that someone was in fact behind the couch. He stood up and yelled, “What the hell do you think you’re doing in our dorm? The door was locked and I am  _ sure _ that neither of us invited you-” _

_ “Kim Jungwoo, unless you want me to tell your parents about this little… extracurricular activity, you’re going to listen to everything I tell you to do without question.” Jaemin grinned. _

_ Jungwoo stared at the younger man. “Are you serious? You know that my parents are conservative-” _

_ “That’s exactly why I know you’re going to listen to me.” _

_ Jaemin was Jungwoo’s ex. He had ended things with Jaemin a few days prior because he found out that Jaemin had been cheating on him. Their relationship was rather abusive, and it was all because of Jaemin. He always found a way to make Jungwoo feel bad, even if he didn’t do anything wrong - which he never did. Apparently Jaemin was creepier than he thought. But he wouldn’t let him push him around anymore. _

_ Jungwoo shook his head. “There is no fucking way I’ll do that. I’m done with you, Jaemin. You don’t mean anything to me anymore, and to be honest, you never did. So fuck off. I don’t care if you tell my parents about  _ _ my sexuality because I’ve already been disowned. There’s nothing you can do to me because you already broke me.” He takes a deep breath, “Now get the fuck out of my dorm and leave me alone, you lonely piece of shit.” _

_ All Jaemin does is smirk the whole time while Jungwoo swears at him. It’s like he finds it funny. “Okay. Goodbye for now, Jungwoo. But don’t be surprised when I pop up later. You’re in my debt.” He winks and walks out of their dorm room, closing the door behind him. _

_ Jungwoo relaxed and turned to Yukhei. Saying that he looked very confused would be an understatement. _

_ As if on cue, Yukhei passed out, falling onto the couch. Jungwoo rushed over to him, pulling him into his lap and moving the hair out of his face. “I’m sorry, Yukhei. I never wanted to get you involved in this.” _

-

The text from Jaemin read, “Kim Jungwoo, it’s been a long time, hasn’t it? I’d say that it’s been too long. Remember what I said to you all those years ago? It went something like “I’ll be back.” Well, here I am. And you know what you have to do, right? Or do you not remember? I know that you have ‘short term memory loss’, as you’d like to call it.”

Jungwoo’s hands slightly shook as he typed in his response. “What do you want from me?”

Yukhei wrapped his arm around Jungwoo’s shoulders reassuringly. “Whatever you have to do, I won’t let you do it alone. We’re in this together, remember?” He offered a smile to his friend.

Jungwoo shook his head. “You don’t have to do that for me. He may not seem like it, but Jaemin is very dangerous. I don’t want you to get hurt.”

Yukhei was about to say something when Jungwoo’s phone buzzed. “Well honestly, there are a few things you have to do for me. The first is deliver a package to Beijing. Can you do that? Well actually, I don’t even know why I’m asking. You  _ have _ to do it.”

Jungwoo bit his lip and looked at Yukhei. “What are we going to do? I-I don’t want to go to jail.”

Yukhei took a deep breath. “I hate to suggest it, but… Nevermind. I-”

“What is it? I’ll do anything at this point.” Jungwoo was eager for any way out of this.

“We could run away.”

Jungwoo’s eyes widened. “But Doyoung-”

Yukhei shakes his head. “I wish that there was another way, but we both know that his requests will just get worse after this. If we’re going to do it, you can’t tell anyone. Not even Doyoung. I’m so sorry, Jungwoo. But it’d just be for a few years.”

Jungwoo’s stomach fills with anxiety. “But he’ll just come back again. There’s no way to escape him. You know what he has against me…” He trails off, his gaze shifting to the side. He thinks for a moment before he continues speaking. “Give me three days. And then we can leave. Yukhei, this better work.”

He nods his head. “I don’t doubt that it will.”


	8. CHAPTER SEVEN

Doyoung looks up and smiles at Jungwoo before his fingers start plucking the strings of his guitar.

“ _When the world gets too heavy_   
_Put it on my back_   
_I'll be your levy_   
_You are taking me apart_   
_Like bad glue_ _  
_On a get well card.”

He grins as he continues singing,

“ _It was always you_   
_Falling for me_   
_Now there's always time_   
_Calling for me_   
_I'm the light blinking at the end of the road_ _  
_Blink back to let me know.”

Jungwoo smiles at the lyrics before Doyoung continues,

“ _I'm a fly that's trapped_   
_In a web_   
_But I'm thinking that_   
_My spider's dead_   
_Lonely, lonely little life_   
_I could kid myself_ _  
_In thinking that I'm fine.”

Doyoung’s head raises to look at Jungwoo. He pauses for a moment before singing more,

“ _It was always you_   
_Falling for me_   
_Now there's always time_   
_Calling for me_   
_I'm the light blinking at the end of the road_ _  
_Blink back to let me know.”

Jungwoo claps as Doyoung puts his guitar down. His face is red and he’s shaking a little, but the smile on his face is bright. “I can’t believe that you just serenaded me,” Jungwoo laughs.

“Did you not like it?” Doyoung quickly asks, suddenly becoming self-conscious.

Jungwoo shakes his head, holding his hands up. “No, trust me. Your voice is literally so beautiful.” He pauses, thinking. “You know, you really should post covers on YouTube or something. You’d get so much clout with that voice.”

Doyoung smiles. “Maybe I will.” He leans over and gently kisses Jungwoo. “But only because you suggested it.”

Jungwoo returns the smile until his phone buzzes. He looks at it to see that Jaemin’s calling him. His eyes widen and he quickly stands up, telling Doyoung that he has to take the call. After walking into the hall, he answers. “What the hell do you want?”

“He’s cute.”

“What?” Jungwoo looks around him, trying to see if anyone was watching him.

“Your boyfriend. He’s cute.”

Jungwoo peeks around the corner to see Doyoung scrolling on his phone. “Jaemin, if you-”

“Relax. I won’t do anything.” He pauses. “Yet.”

Jungwoo opens his mouth to say something when he hears Jaemin hang up. He slowly puts his phone in his pocket and walks back to Doyoung. He looks up at Jungwoo and asks, “Who was that? Is something wrong?”

Jungwoo stares at Doyoung, wordless. After Doyoung waves his hand in front of his face, Jungwoo snaps out of it. “Uh- no, nothing’s wrong. Lock your windows and doors tonight. I don’t want anything bad to happen to you.”

“Are you _sure_ that nothing’s wrong? You’ve never acted like this before.” He puts his hand on Jungwoo’s lower back, setting his guitar down next to him. He stands up and looks into his eyes. “You can tell me anything.”

Jungwoo bites his lip. “I really want to, but I can’t. Just- make sure to lock everything tonight. I uh- I have to go. I’ll text you?” He smiles and gets his coat. He quickly kisses Doyoung and walks out of the apartment.

“Uh, okay. Text me!” Doyoung turns around, more confused than ever.

-

Jungwoo practically sped to his apartment. He locked the door after slamming it and walked over to Yukhei, who was sitting on the couch. “We need to leave,” he says in between breaths, “tonight.”

“Why? You still have one day left-” Yukhei is interrupted when someone knocks at their door.

Jungwoo practically passes out on the spot. “Uh- turn off all the lights. We need to pretend that we aren’t home. Are the windows and everything locked?”

Yukhei shakes his head. “Why-”

“I have the suspicion that the person at the door is not very friendly.” Jungwoo runs into his room and locks the windows. He goes into all of the other rooms, doing the same thing. The person at the door continues to knock, asking things like “Is anyone here?”

Jungwoo goes back into the living room to see Yukhei, still on the couch. He turns off the TV and takes Yukhei’s hand, pulling him up from the couch. He takes Yukhei into his room, locking the door behind him. He turns around to look at Yukhei when he is met with a confused glare. “Did you really have to turn off the TV? I was watching lions get it on. It’s actually pretty interesting, if I do say so myself.”

Jungwoo sits down on Yukhei’s bed. “While I was at Doyoung’s, I got a call from Jaemin. He said that he’ll hurt Doyoung if we don’t hurry up. I think it’s him outside.”

Yukhei shakes his head. “If it was him, he’d be inside already. You know how he is, picking locks and everything. Do you think he just carries that stuff around with him? It must be pretty heavy-” Jungwoo puts his finger over Yukhei’s lips when he hears their front door open. He pulls him onto the bed. “Do you have anywhere we can hide…?”

Yukhei looks around his room. “Well I mean, there’s my closet. We can both fit in there if we really try.”

Jungwoo nods and walks over to his closet. He opens the door and moves some things around so he can sit on the floor with clothes covering him. Yukhei does the same and right after they close the door, Yukhei’s door handle starts jiggling. Jaemin yells, “I know you’re in here! There’s half eaten food on the table and the couch is still warm. You two can’t hide from me, and you know it.”

Yukhei reaches over to Jungwoo in the dark and grabs his hand, rubbing his thumb over his knuckles. The door to his room swings open and Jaemin walks in. He doesn’t care to close the door behind him because he believes that nothing bad can happen to him. He feels invincible - like he’s a god.

He takes a few minutes, looking around the room. He eventually gives up, assuming that they weren’t home. He begins singing, “In wells I lie lay found in night don’t yawn on up.” He repeats it several times, leaving their apartment.

Yukhei opens the closet door and stands up, going over to sit on his bed. “What was that?”

Jungwoo stands up as well and leans against the wall. “Honestly? I have no idea.”

He shakes his head and walks back into his own room, laying down. He repeats the words to himself a few times before falling asleep.

-

_Jaemin’s warm hand found his way into Jungwoo’s cold one. They were walking down a street in their neighborhood, looking at shops and smiling at each other. At that moment they were completely in love. Jaemin brought Jungwoo over to a tree and they sat on the ground, Jungwoo’s head against Jaemin’s chest. “We should come up with a code,” Jaemin suddenly says._

_Jungwoo twisted his head to look up at him. “What kind of code?”_

_“I don’t know. But it’d be fun to talk about someone right in front of them without them even knowing.” Jaemin smiles, looking up at the tree._

_Jungwoo bites his lip, thinking. “How about we take the first letter of every word and make it into a message? Like if i were to say ‘truck,’ I would say ‘Try right under,” he thinks for a moment, “‘counters,’ what’s a word starting with k?”_

_“Kill,” Jaemin says immediately._

_“Well that wouldn’t make much sense but should we do that?” Jungwoo smiles._

_Jaemin nods. “Sure.”_

-

Jungwoo sits up in bed. “I know what he was saying.” He reached over and grabbed a piece of paper. He quietly repeated to himself, “In wells I lie lay found in night don’t yawn on up,” writing the first letter of each word on the paper. It came out with, “I WILL FIND YOU.”

Jungwoo stares at the paper for a few seconds before bringing it to Yukhei’s room. He turns on the light and says, “Wake up. I know what Jaemin was saying when he left the room.”

Yukhei rolls over, his hair as messy as ever. “Jungwoo, what the literal fu-”

“He was saying ‘I will find you.’ We’re not safe here. We have to leave. Now.” Jungwoo grabs a bag and throws it at his friend. “Pack everything you need. We’ll be gone for a while.”

Yukhei rubs his eyes, still sleepy. “We’ll leave in an hour or two. Just let me,” he yawns, “wake up first.” He turns to look at his clock. It was 1:27 AM. He looks over at Jungwoo. “It’s literally 1:30 AM. You couldn't have waited until a reasonable time? Like 9 or 10?”

Jungwoo shakes his head and walks back to his room, beginning to pack.

After nearly everything that he needs is in a bag, he goes on his phone and opens a note.

“Dear Doyoung,

    I know that nothing I can say or do will ever make up for what I’m about to say. I would tell you why I’m doing this but I can’t - it’s not safe. All you need to know is that I care about you so much and I am so sorry. There’s no good way to say this, so I’ll just say it like it is: I’m running away. Well, not running away - more like going into hiding. There is someone from my past that is after Yukhei and me. We can’t get rid of him - we’ve tried before. After today, our only option is to run. I would ask you to come with me, but it’ll be too dangerous. You’re going to have to pretend that I never existed. I’m so sorry for asking you to do this. If it was up to me, we would have a normal relationship… We would get married, grow old together, and everything in between - but it isn’t. I want you to know that I truly care about you. I love you so much and doing this breaks my heart. But I will come back for you. Whether it be years, months, or days, I promise that I will come back. You are my moon, my stars, my everything. I promise that this is not goodbye, Doyoung. I love you.”

He doesn’t know if he should write it out and mail it to him or just text him, but he decides that he should write it so it didn’t look half-assed.

Forty five minutes later, he slides the letter into an envelope, along with a polaroid of them together. He writes on the front “My Diamond Boy”.

As Yukhei walks out of his room with a bag holding everything that mattered to him, Jungwoo says, “We’re going to have to make a stop before we actually leave.”

Yukhei’s eyes drift to the envelope in Jungwoo’s hand. “Doyoung’s apartment?”

Jungwoo silently nods, turning around to get his bag. “I don’t want to just ghost him. He deserves an explanation.”

“Did you tell him everything?”

Jungwoo shakes his head. “I couldn’t do that to him.” He pauses for a moment and jogs to his room, picking up the petal that Doyoung had given him the day he told Jungwoo about his fear of falling in love. He put it in the envelope, sealing it closed. He walks back out into the living room, reluctantly grabbing his bags and walking out of their apartment.


	9. CHAPTER EIGHT

Doyoung woke up to the sun shining through his bedroom windows. As he walked out into his living room, something within him told him that today was going to be a good day. He noticed that an envelope had been slipped under his door into his apartment. After picking it up, he saw that it said “My Diamond Boy” on the front.  _ A love letter from Jungwoo? _ He grinned and placed it on his counter to read it later. After he made himself breakfast, he tried calling Jungwoo so he could hear his reaction as he read whatever Jungwoo had written for him, but he went straight to voicemail.

He wrinkled his nose in confusion when the same thing happened after he tried calling again.  _ Maybe his phone is just dead? _

He disregarded the attempted phone calls, convincing himself that it was probably just something with Jungwoo’s phone. But he felt anxiety growing inside of him.

After washing the dishes and putting them away, Doyoung took a seat on his sofa. He tried contacting Jungwoo in every way possible, but none of them worked.

Until his phone  _ dinged  _ with a text message from Jungwoo.

He immediately picked up his phone and unlocked it. The message was a website link, so he clicked on it. It took him to a website with two things on it; the first thing was a picture of them together and the second thing was a message underneath it.

“ _ Hello my love! Something must’ve happened to me because you’re reading this right now. Well, I hope that you read my letter first because if you didn’t… well, just read it first.” _

Doyoung jumped up and ran to his counter to get the letter that he had forgotten about until now. He sat back down and ripped it open, taking the note out that was inside. Along with it, the flower petal drifted onto his carpeted floor.

His stomach dropped.

Something was very,  _ very  _ wrong.

As Doyoung read the letter, his hands began to shake. After he finished reading it, he went back to the website.

“ _ After you read everything on this website, I’ve set it to delete itself. The man that’s after me has a way of getting into everything, so don’t screenshot anything. If you want to take pictures of everything on here, then do it with a secure camera that is not connected to any wifi. And then lock that in a safe. _

_ “No one else knows that I’m telling you any of this, and I intend to keep it that way. I beg you, please do not make a huge scene about this. He will know. _

_ “You’re probably wondering who ‘he’ is. His name is Na Jaemin. He is my ex boyfriend, even though I never really felt like I mattered to him. Well, now I matter  _ too _ much. After I caught him cheating on me, I broke up with him - and he didn’t like that. There were so many other bad properties of our relationship, but that was what finally gave me the courage to break up with him. Because that was a sign that I didn’t matter to him, right? _

_ “Wrong. _

_ “A few nights after we broke up, Yukhei and I were high. We had no idea what we were doing. We kissed, and Jaemin broke into our dorm and took pictures of us. He has other things against me as well. I used to do illegal drugs in highschool and he has proof of it. I’ve done things that could put me prison, even today. _

_ “Anyways, Jaemin is incredibly skilled in a lot of areas, but mostly hacking and breaking into places. So please, Doyoung, make sure that you change the passwords on every device you have, including the lock to your apartment around every twelve hours. Buy extremely sturdy locks that cannot be picked and put them on every window and door in your apartment. He’s seen you before, and he knows that we’re dating. Do not underestimate him. _

_ “But most importantly, please remember that I love you. You are my universe and all of my stars, Kim Dongyoung. And I will come back for you, even if it kills me. Don’t forget me.” _

Doyoung didn’t even realize that he was crying until a teardrop fell onto his phone screen. He felt like his heart had just broken into millions of pieces and he’d have to clean them all up and put them back together.

Alone.

At that moment, Doyoung hated Jungwoo. Part of him  _ wanted  _ Jaemin to hurt him just so Jungwoo would feel even a fraction of what he felt right now. He had opened his heart to Jungwoo. He told him his deepest darkest secret; something that he had never told anyone else with confidence. He felt safe with Jungwoo.

But not anymore.

Doyoung swore to himself that he wouldn’t forget Jungwoo.

How could he, when he’s the man that broke him?


	10. CHAPTER NINE

**Four Years Later**

 

Jungwoo stepped into a local diner that he had been to many times before. By his side was Yukhei, their hands intertwined. He saw many people sitting in booths that he might’ve greeted four years prior to today, but with everything he’s gone through, he’s learned to only trust Yukhei. The four years they spent together included fighting for their lives more times than they cared to count. And because of it, they grew closer in ways they weren’t close before.

The couple slipped into a booth together, ordering their meals. After the waitress left, Jungwoo leaned over the table and quietly asked, “Are you sure that we’re safe now?” He looked around the warm diner.

“I’m sure. Jaemin was caught and is in prison for his crimes. You don’t have to be afraid anymore,” Yukhei takes Jungwoo’s hand and gently squeezes it, smiling. “No one can hurt you anymore.”

Jungwoo nods shakily. Even though Yukhei told him that there’s nothing to be afraid of, he still felt like something was wrong. He sits back into his seat, his hands still in Yukhei’s.

The things that Jungwoo had gone through within the past years had left a mark on his soul. He is no longer the happy, bubbly, easy-going college student he was. Now he is an anxiety-ridden renegade that has forgotten how to live; now he only knows how to survive.

Plates of fresh food were placed in front of them. No one else knew, but this is the first properly cooked meal they had had in four years. While they were eating, Yukhei noticed that despite his words of reassurance, Jungwoo was still anxious about something.

While he was cutting up his steak, he asked, “Are you going to see Doyoung?”

At the mention of his name, Jungwoo stopped eating and he put his fork down. “I don’t know,” he said truthfully. “I’m afraid of what he thinks of me now.”

As if on cue, Doyoung walked into the small restaurant. As soon as he stepped through the door, he saw Jungwoo. It seemed like all of the color drained from his face. But to Jungwoo’s surprise, another person came in next to him - a little girl. And she was holding his hand.

Doyoung broke his stare at Jungwoo and walked towards the register, picking up a brown bag. He had ordered take out and he had gone in to pick it up. He handed the bag to the little girl and told her to wait in the car for him. She smiled up at him, nodded, and ran out of the diner. Doyoung walked over to the booth where Jungwoo and Yukhei were sitting and he stood in front of it. His knuckles were gripping the end of the table and Jungwoo noticed that they were turning white.

Doyoung took a deep breath. “That was my little girl. Her name is Hayoon and she means everything to me. I don’t want either of you anywhere near my family. You,” he points at Jungwoo, “ruined my life. Until my wife, Dahyun, saved me. You  _ abandoned  _ me when you promised that you wouldn’t. I don’t ever want to see your faces in my life ever again. I’m assuming that you just got here, so I’m going to tell you right now to find somewhere else to settle down. If you don’t, there  _ will  _ be consequences.”

Doyoung begins to walk away, but Yukhei grabs his arm and pulls him back to face him. “Don’t talk to my fucking boyfriend like that. We’re none of your concern, so shut up while you’re ahead. You’ve clearly terrified Jungwoo, so I don’t think he wants to see your disgusting ass ever again either. Run along to your  _ perfect  _ family and don’t ever think that you even mildly know what we have been through when we were gone. Fuck off, Doyoung. You’re worthless to us.”

He lets go of his arm, letting him walk away. Yukhei sits back down, this time next to Jungwoo. He puts a hand on Jungwoo’s arm, quietly asking, “Are you okay?”

Jungwoo shakes his head, tears beginning to fall. “C-can we go home?”

Yukhei nodded, rubbing small circles on his back. He stands up and pays for their food, not bothering to bring the rest with them. Yukhei drove them to the house his family lives in. He knew that they would let them stay there for at least a few days. When they got to the large house, Yukhei opened the door for Jungwoo, holding his hand as they walked into the house where Yukhei had grown up. His parents run to the door to see who had come into their house. When they saw their son who had been presumed dead, they almost screamed in joy. But Yukhei stopped them, gesturing to Jungwoo. “I’ll explain everything later,” he mouths to them.

He took Jungwoo up to his old bedroom and sat him on the bed. He kneeled in front of him, holding his hands. “Tell me what’s on your mind.”

“Are you sure? Because-”

“Yes, love, I’m sure.”

Jungwoo slowly nods, his eyes not leaving Yukhei’s. “I could see how- how  _ angry  _ he was at me. If we weren’t in a public setting…” He looks to the side. “I caused him so much pain, Yukhei.  _ So much pain. _ ”

Yukhei shakes his head, gently turning Jungwoo’s head so he was looking at him again. “You told him that you were going to be back. If he trusted you,  _ really  _ trusted you, then he wouldn't have hurt so much. He brought it upon himself.” Yukhei knew that what he was saying wasn’t one hundred percent true, but he couldn’t let Jungwoo beat himself up like this. “He made his choice. We made ours.”

He nods again, but the sadness and regret in his chest doesn’t go away. “Yukhei…”

“Hm?”

“I just want to let you know that whatever happens, I’m happy that we ended up like this.” He offers a small smile. “I-I love you, Yukhei.”

A wide grin appears on Yukhei’s face. He stands up and sits next to Jungwoo. He gently kisses him and then leans his forehead against his. “I love you too.”


	11. CHAPTER TEN

After Jungwoo fell asleep, Yukhei practically ran down the stairs to see his parents. His mother started crying when she felt her son in her arms again. She never thought that she would have the chance to see her little boy again - and yet here he is, like a gift sent from heaven. They all sat on the sofa, his mother with her arms around him. They talked for hours on end about everything they missed while they were gone. He told his parents that he’s bisexual and that Jungwoo is his boyfriend. They took it very well. Regardless of what his sexuality was, their baby was home, safe, and well-fed.

The next few months were filled with home-cooked meals made by Yukhei’s mother and alcoholic beverages made by Yukhei’s father. Jungwoo started feeling happier and showed more confidence, regaining his intelligence that he had before the whole Jaemin thing started. He never talked about what happened, though. There was a period of time where Jungwoo and Yukhei were split up - Yukhei had found Jungwoo a few months after they had parted ways, bloody and on the verge of death. Even though Jungwoo trusted Yukhei with his life, he would never speak of the horrific things he had been through.

Even though Doyoung had threatened them, they never moved out of that part of Seoul. And they never saw each other again.

They thought nothing of it until they turned on the news one morning. Channels all over Seoul were reporting that Na Jaemin had broken out of prison. And that Kim Dongyoung was missing.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thank you for reading! i had a lot of fun writing this fic, and i hope that this made you feel something. whether it be happiness, sadness, anger, or all three, i'm very glad that you took the time to read my work. i hope you have a great day/afternoon/evening/night!


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